Comment by onefiftymike

I'm assuming that, like most crypto, the benefits are for the exchange. They don't have to purchase any Microsoft stock. They can just sell virtual stock, invest the crypto in whatever they want, and only have to pay back when people actually want to sell it. And like the fractional reserve system, they hope that only a small fraction want out at any given time.

Microsoft loses because all of that investment activity does nothing to help their valuation, but the middlemen in the crypto market take their share on each transaction.